Tombs Of The High Priests

Over 2500 years ago, High Priests of Ptah would carry out daily rituals to the god Ptah, to protect the world from chaos. When they died, they were buried in tombs just outside the Great Ptah Temple. We know the names of four of them. They were all descendants of the Pharaoh Orsokon II, who had Libyan roots.

The priests buried here were Crown Prince Sheshonq and his son and grandsons Takelot, Petiese and Harsiese. Sheshonq’s tomb was moved to the Cairo Egyptian Museum. But the tombs of his grandsons can still be seen at Memphis.

Both Petiese and Harsiese were found buried in coffins robbed from a nobleman named Amenhotep-Huy. Huy was a once a Governor of Memphis. Petiese’s beautiful outer sarcophagus is decorated with perfectly preserved images of funeral gods (like Anubis) and lines of funeral texts. It is now displayed in Memphis’ nearby Open Air Museum.